I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer
� Scientist has made synthetic chromosome � Breakthrough could combat global warming
Ed Pilkington in New York The Guardian, Saturday 6 October 2007
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global warming.
Mr Venter told the Guardian he thought this landmark would be "a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before".
The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.
The DNA sequence is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome, which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been watermarked with inks for easy recognition.
It is then transplanted into a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life form. The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively changing the cell's species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome.
The new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and metabolise on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form. However, its DNA will be artificial, and it is the DNA that controls the cell and is credited with being the building block of life.
Mr Venter said he had carried out an ethical review before completing the experiment. "We feel that this is good science," he said. He has further heightened the controversy surrounding his potential breakthrough by applying for a patent for the synthetic bacterium.
Pat Mooney, director of a Canadian bioethics organisation, ETC group, said the move was an enormous challenge to society to debate the risks involved. "Governments, and society in general, is way behind the ball. This is a wake-up call - what does it mean to create new life forms in a test-tube?"
He said Mr Venter was creating a "chassis on which you could build almost anything. It could be a contribution to humanity such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity such as bio-weapons".
Mr Venter believes designer genomes have enormous positive potential if properly regulated. In the long-term, he hopes they could lead to alternative energy sources previously unthinkable. Bacteria could be created, he speculates, that could help mop up excessive carbon dioxide, thus contributing to the solution to global warming, or produce fuels such as butane or propane made entirely from sugar.
"We are not afraid to take on things that are important just because they stimulate thinking," he said. "We are dealing in big ideas. We are trying to create a new value system for life. When dealing at this scale, you can't expect everybody to be happy."
posted
Not me. We can't handle a check book. That goes for the government on down,and this guy is talking about creating life. I'll stay sick,thank-you ,but no thank-you.
This is just my own opion. My ethics concerning life ,God the bigger picture. Something way down deep tells Me this is not right.
be as well as You can be today appleseed
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posted
Screw ethics!! This is no better than creating a bio weapon or new disease is it not. Did I miss something?? Who the hell feels we need a new species of mycoplasma on this planet?
Baffling!!
-------------------- Pos BB and Bart(Q & H IGG pos) Began treat 1 year after start of illness. Diagnosed Feb 2007. Posts: 648 | From Ireland | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
Wow! They can do crap like this but they can't figure out what is happening to us.
It only reaffirms my belief we are expendable.
The fact that screwing with microbes might have brought all this pain about makes me wonder if they should be creating new life forms.
I don't think we are responsible enough yet as a species to risk manipulating life on a microbiotic level.
Posts: 743 | From New York | Registered: Apr 2009
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
It was shocking to me that they were working with mycoplasmas... Just what we need... more things that can potentially make us ill.
Why are they working with a bacteria that can be spread either sexually or by air???
Mycoplasma laboratorium is a planned partially synthetic species of bacterium derived from the genome of Mycoplasma genitalium.
This effort in synthetic biology is being undertaken at the J. Craig Venter Institute by a team of approximately twenty scientists headed by Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, and including DNA researcher Craig Venter and microbiologist Clyde A. Hutchison III.
Mycoplasma genitalium is a small parasitic bacterium which lives on the ciliated epithelial cells of the primate genital and respiratory tracts.
M. genitalium is the smallest known free-living bacterium, and the second-smallest bacterium after the recently-discovered endosymbiont Carsonella ruddii.
Until the discovery of Nanoarchaeum in 2002, M. genitalium was also considered to be the organism with the smallest genome.[1]
Mycoplasma genitalium was originally isolated in 1980 from urethral specimens of two male patients with non-gonococcal urethritis.
Infection by M. genitalium seems fairly common, can be transmitted between partners during unprotected sexual intercourse, and can be treated with antibiotics; however, the organism's role in genital diseases is still unclear.
The genome of M. genitalium consists of 521 genes (482 protein encoding genes) in one circular chromosome of 582,970 base pairs.
An initial study of the M. genitalium genome with random sequencing was performed by Peterson in 1993. It was then sequenced by Fraser and others.
It was found to contain only 470 predicted coding regions, including genes required for DNA replication, transcription and translation, DNA repair, cellular transport, and energy metabolism.[2]
It was the second complete bacterial genome ever sequenced, after Haemophilus influenzae.
The small genome of M. genitalium made it the organism of choice in The Minimal Genome Project, a study to find the smallest set of genetic material necessary to sustain life.
[edit]Synthetic life
In October 2007, a team of scientists headed by controversial DNA researcher Craig Venter and Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith announced that they plan to create the first artificial life form in history by creating a synthetic chromosome which they plan to inject into the M. genitalium bacterium, potentially resulting in an artificial species dubbed Mycoplasma laboratorium or Mycoplasma JCVI-1.0 after the research centre in which it was created, the J. Craig Venter Institute in the United States.[3][4]
On 24 January 2008, the same team reported to have synthesized the complete 582,970 base pair genome of M. genitalium (a key gene that enables the wild organism to cause disease was knocked out).
The final stage of synthesis was completed inside a yeast cell.[5]
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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mojo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9309
posted
In my opinion we should leave creating and destroying life up to God.
That's all I'm sayin'!!
Posts: 1761 | From USA | Registered: May 2006
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by Donald S. McAlvaney, Editor, McAlvaney Intelligence Advisor (MIA), August 1996
GWI is a communicable, moderately contagious and potentially lethal disease, resulting from a laboratory modified germ warfare agent called Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus).
[ED. NOTE: There were actually up to 15 such agents used in Desert Storm by Iraq - - only three have been identified at this writing: mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus), mycoplasma genitalia, and Brucella species.].
Myco- plasma fermentans (incognitus) is a biological which contains most of the (HIV) envelope gene, which was most likely inserted into it in germ warfare laboratories.
GWI spreads far more easily than AIDS, by sex, by casual contact, through perspiration, or by being close to someone who coughs. Your children can be infected at a playground or school. The Nicolsons, who have isolated the micro-organisms, say that it is airborne and moderately contagious.
(continued on link...)
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
The artificial construction of the genome is interesting, but this is a long way from "creating life" as far as I can see. This is a genome transplant, which seems like an extension of recombinant technology (gene splicing).
Posts: 263 | From Capital Region, NY, USA | Registered: Jun 2008
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adamm
Unregistered
posted
Used by Iraq, eh? US poisoners have the patent on it, VOM plum, right? But then again, our fearless leaders have always been all about funding and arming those who they'd have us believe are our enemies.
I do wonder whether or not the tick that bit me also had a mycoplasma, for my acute symptoms were identical to those of a cold, and my folks, who I was with at the time, came down with URI's a couple of days after I got sick.
Mycoplasma's treated the same way Lyme is, no?
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
I'm still looking into the treatment of this pathogen.
It makes sense to me that this may be why I have been so ill despite treatments. There could be more factors involved but the more I study it the more it seems to make sense to me that some of us may be ill with this.
There isn't alot of research into it other than abx. I don't think the tests are accurate. Even Dr. Nicholson's lab tests...
I'll post more when I have time.
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
PS - TWC - it's sort of a "cut & paste" creation of life. I guess they feel that by starting here - they will be able to go further with it & create "synthetic life".
I actually think this is what is being revealed to us now. I believe this has been going on for some time in secret. The mycoplasma that was created that causes Gulf War Syndrome was being used over 10 years ago...
Whay are "they" revealing it to us now that Craig Ventner & his team have done it with this so called Mycoplasma laboratorium?
They are saying it will be able to produce synthetic fuels & cure "global warming".... Sounds like a bunch of "spin" to me. All of this has gone on pretty much away from the public view.
This announcement was not big news - as I recall. No one seems to even be concerned about this. I guess it's a big deal to me since I may be ill with this & 13 + years of my life have been co-opted by an illness that may be man-made.
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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STONY BROOK, N.Y. - Eckard Wimmer knows of a shortcut terrorists could someday use to get their hands on the lethal viruses that cause Ebola and smallpox. He knows it exceptionally well, because he discovered it himself.
In 2002, the German-born molecular geneticist startled the scientific world by creating the first live, fully artificial virus in the lab. It was a variation of the bug that causes polio, yet different from any virus known to nature. And Wimmer built it from scratch.
The virus was made wholly from nonliving parts, using equipment and chemicals on hand in Wimmer's small laboratory at the State University of New York here on Long Island. The most crucial part, the genetic code, was picked up for free on the Internet. Hundreds of tiny bits of viral DNA were purchased online, with final assembly in the lab.
Wimmer intended to sound a warning, to show that science had crossed a threshold into an era in which genetically altered and made-from-scratch germ weapons were feasible. But in the four years since, other scientists have made advances faster than Wimmer imagined possible. Government officials, and scientists such as Wimmer, are only beginning to grasp the implications.
"The future," he said, "has already come."
Posts: 789 | From CT, | Registered: Jun 2006
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Successful Treatment of GWI Mycoplasmal Infections
We have found that mycoplasmal infections in GWI, CFS, FMS and RA can be successfully treated
with multiple courses of specific antibiotics, such as doxycycline, ciprofloxacin,
azithromycin, clarithromycin or minocycline [9-11, 20-22], along with other nutritional
recommendations. Multiple treatment cycles are required, and patients relapse often after the
first few cycles, but subsequent relapses are milder and most patients eventually recover [9,
10]. In contrast, in nondeployed, healthy adults the incidence of mycoplasma-positive tests were
~6% [11]. We found that 87 mycoplasma-positive GWI patients on antibiotic therapy relapsed
within weeks after the first 6-week cycle of therapy, but 69/87 recovered after up to six
cycles of therapy and 18/87 are still undergoing therapy. GWI patients who recovered from their
illness after several (3-7) 6-week cycles of antibiotic therapy were retested for mycoplasmal
infection and were found to have reverted to a mycoplasma-negative phenotype [9, 10]. We
hypothesize that the therapy takes a long time because of the microorganisms involved are slow-
growing and are localized deep inside cells in tissues, where it is more difficult to achieve
proper antibiotic therapeutic concentrations. As stated above, multiple cycles of therapy result in eventual recovery in a high percentage of
mycoplasma-positive GWI patients. Although anti-inflammatory drugs can alleviate some of the
signs and symptoms of GWI, the signs and symptoms appear to quickly return after
discontinuing drug use. If the effect was due to an anti-inflammatory action of the antibiotics,
then the antibiotics would have to be continuously applied and they would be expected
to eliminate only some of the signs and symptoms of GWI. In addition, not all antibiotics, even
those that have anti-inflammatory effects, appear to work. Only the types of antibiotics
that are known to be effective against mycoplasmas are effective; most have no effect
at all on the signs and symptoms of GWI/CFS/FMS/RA, and some antibiotics make the
condition worse. Thus the antibiotic therapy does not appear to be a placebo effect, because
only a few types of antibiotics are effective and some, like penicillin, make the condition
worse. We also believe that this type of infection is immune-suppressing and can lead to
other opportunistic infections by viruses and other microorganisms or increases in endogenous
virus titers. The percentage of mycoplasma-positive GWI patients overall is likely to be
somewhat lower than found in our studies (~45%). This is reasonable, since GWI patients that have
come to us for assistance are probably more advanced patients (with more progressed disease)
than the average patient. Although we have been criticized for not conducting double-blinded,
controlled clinical studies on large numbers of patients, such studies are quite labor intensive
and very expensive, and all of our studies were conducted without any government support or help
whatsoever. Although our studies do not involve controlled patient populations, such as all
veterans that served in a single unit compared to similar numbers of nondeployed personnel from
the same unit, such controlled populations can only be studied only with the help and financial
assistance of the DoD and DVA. Recently the DVA has initiated a controlled clinical trial (CSP
#475) involving 18 VA medical institutions that will test the usefulness of antibiotic treatment
of mycoplasma-positive GWI patients. This clinical trial is based completely on our
research and publications on the diagnosis and treatment of chronic infections in GWI patients [9, 10, 20-22].
September 1998 indicate that the DoD is still trying to bury the issue of infectious diseases and GWI... more at site listed above.
-------------------- This is only my opinion and/or experience with Lyme Disease. I am not a medical professional. Posts: 587 | From usa | Registered: Dec 2000
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
There is some controversy about the antibiotic approach to "curing" mycoplasma infection. I posted an article a while back about it. I'll have to see if I can dig it up again.
There's no real evidence that the abx work - it's just Dr Nicholson's theory. It hasn't been extensively studied.
I'd prefer to treat with other things than abx. There are also herbal & homeopathic remedies that can be used.
I don't know if it's a cure but I don't like the idea of endless abx. It does so much damage to the body.
PS - Thanks Al. What an egotist that Ventner is...! I suspect this has been going on for a while in secret.
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